Systems and methods are known for monitoring QoS in transferring information (data) between a client terminal or user and an Internet server.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,021,439 discloses a system and method in which an Internet Service Provider (ISP) associates to predefined Web pages appropriate enabling keys able both to activate, at the client terminal, predefined programs for collecting QoS parameters, and to transmit the collected parameters to the Service Provider.
A first problem shared by known systems and methods for collecting the QoS consists of the fact that such systems and methods provide for the collection of specific QoS parameters of the Service Providers, neglecting parameters linked to the characteristics and functionality of the telecommunications network supporting the Internet services.
This approach, which is typical of known systems and methods, is substantially unsatisfactory because it neglects one of the essential elements of QoS for Internet services; QoS depends on the various architectural elements that participate or contribute to the use of Internet services, i.e. in part on devices or parameters under the Service Provider's control, in part on devices or parameters linked to the telecommunications network and to those responsible for its operation (operator), in part on devices or parameters associated to the type of terminals or connections used by the clients themselves.
In other words, since all the architectural elements that participate or contribute to the use of Internet services can cause an insufficient QoS, there is the problem of having available tools able to discriminate the causes of insufficient QoS attributing the responsibility individually to said architectural elements.
An additional problem of the prior art, in particular in the case of Internet services on mobile networks, consists of the fact that the transmission of QoS parameters is limited to Service Providers only, while the clients of these types of services tend to ascribed the responsibility for insufficient QoS, not to the Service Provider, but to the network operator who, however, not having adequate tools available, due to the limited nature of known systems and methods, is incapable of identifying the causes of said insufficient QoS.
Therefore, the problem exists of making available to network operators, and not only to Service Providers, in particular in the case of mobile networks, adequate tools for collecting and managing QoS information.
Another problem of the prior art resides in the fact that the terminals generally used to transmit the measurements are able to transmit absolute QoS information, for instance, in terms of transfer times, number of Web pages transferred and so on, while for network operators, in particular in the case of mobile networks, but also for the Service Provider, it would be important to know subjective parameters, i.e. parameters indicative of clients' actual perception.